Spring Break -- Break Down

It's a little late, but here's our Spring Break Report...

Mimi's really excited to make cookies! 

The first day of Spring Break was a PERFECT sledding weather! 

Making Pinewood Derby cars.

Watching for the garbage truck :)

Then just for kicks we went up to Kirtland, Ohio.  It only took us 4.5 years to make it there!  

Look, Mom--Floor Cloth!

Hitting a local chocolate shop. 

Kirtland Temple 

Easter Dinner, yum...

Fitting In

 When I dropped Yoda off at preschool his teacher, Miss Tonya said they were going to lay down on big paper and trace an "X" with their bodies.  

It's as very cute idea, but in my head I thought, "there's no way Yoda will do that". 

When he got home he was very excited to show his "X".  We put the paper on the ground, but he wouldn't lay down on it to make the "X" with his body.  

So I asked him:"did Miss Tonya trace you on this paper?"

His response,"No, Landon (another kid at school) laid down for this 'X'."

*u-huh*
but he did lay down for a photo, hmmm...

______________


 Mimi is still trying to fit into things she's just too big for!

Here she is in Yoda's pj's. 

And she has found a new basket to relax in.

I haven't blogged about the house in a while...

I'm happy to have a pantry, but the shelves had to go!  They were bendy and tough to move stuff around.  Also there was a lip at the end of the shelf that made me tip things over on a daily basis.

This is another one of those projects where I think about it for years, finally tell Greg, and then we take care of it that same weekend.  silly me. 

Here's our pantry before.  The door broke off and it took forever to find the right supplies to fix it. 

I went to the store to buy lumber and shelf brackets and came home to this on the table. Greg must be serious! 

 He had ripped out the shelves and then we filled in a whole latta holes.

Wire shelves out! 

 Yoda made sure things were level. 

 Mimi made sure there was a lot of love. 

 This was a good practice chore for us.  We have a lot to learn about building things.  We learned a bunch from these shelves.



AFTER!
Even with the microwave in the pantry and going from 6 shelves to 5, we use way more of our available space. 

 Lower shelves for big stuff, even my 6 gallon buckets.  I buy in bulk. 

 Along the side I have the shallow baskets from the Container store, they are genius. 

Up top, lots of baskets with the handles on them.  So convenient.  I have the little empty containers for quick snack packing in the hanging basket.  Costco has "pantry ready" boxes, they are also genius. 

We started this in November '12, but it wasn't until today that I bought the last bin and realized we were officially finished.  Maybe in another 5 months I'll finish another project, I hope :)

What Mimi Wore and What Yoda Said

 *Talbots Kids*

 *H and M*
from Aunt Sonya

Me:"Yoda please cuddle with me."
Yoda:"Don't cuddle with me!  Cuddle with the couch."
Me *ouch*

__________

While eating an orange, Yoda:"It's squirt-er-y."

Trying to keep busy during last month's cold...

Lots of play dough

 Celebrating Pi day (March 14th)

 Racing Go-Dino cars,

Doing some unnecessary -- but fun -- lifting!

Mimi's Girl Scout Cookies

 Mimi with all the cookies she sold. 

   We divided up the orders and wrapped the boxes with baker's string, so cute. 

 We did a girl scout cookie taste test.  

Yum! 

Mimi's Birthday At Last

Mimi's birthday started out with presents!  Grandma Shauna and Grandad left just after birthday doughnuts and a couple presents.

Mimi's chosen theme this year is Chinese New Year.  

Mimi wanted a MOON cake...Mmmm. 

Although Mimi didn't have a dino-theme to her birthday this year, the dino tradition lives on with the giant dinosaur!  

 Mimi invited her whole class to a friend party.  (note Mimi's dino shirt.)

 We played the cookie-face game (put a cookie on your forehead then get it to your mouth without touching it).  Oreos are kind-of like a moon, when the moon is full it's like the cream center, when the moon is new/dark it's like the chocolate outside. 

 This group LOVED the obstacle course. 

Everyone ate popcorn and pretzels with chopsticks.  

Very fun, but so glad all the birthdays are over until November :)

Yoda's wisdom

Greg:"When the timer goes off we are getting ready for bed, so what's going to happen when the timer goes off?"
Yoda:"Beep"

Chess Weekend

Last weekend Parker competed in a chess tournament.  He enjoyed it.

Instead of a participation trophies, the tournament gave out notebooks to annotate your own games.  So Mimi and Parker had to try it out.  Parker wrote down the moves in his new note book and Mimi recorded the moves on a scrap sheet of paper on top of the Polgar book.

Yoda and I played a game on the side. 

Mimi won by checkmate on the 33rd move.  We planned on analyzing the game in Tarrasch using Rybka, but the kids let Mimi be in check for a few turns. The computers didn't like that.

ATTACK!

(If you don't know, a blaster / laser shooter / or any other comic gun has the sound *pew*)


As the children were playing....

Yoda:"You get out to *pew* the things!"
Parker:"Why?!"
Mimi:"NO!  I'll get out and *pew* the things!" 

________________

Parker is well on his way to earning his Webelos badges...

 He's pretty happy about it!

Shopping with Yoda